Adverse weather conditions: Your business doesn’t need to grind to a halt

This weekend saw arctic temperatures across the UK, with a lot of areas experiencing snowfall. It’s clear that winter is well and truly setting in, and your business needs to be prepared for adverse weather conditions.

Here in our offices in Bath we have a lot of staff who come to work from small villages deep in rural Somerset. In isolated areas like this, icy roads and heavy snowfall are more of a problem as they have fewer resources; keeping main roads open is the priority, and facilities don’t often stretch to the quiet country lanes. But here that’s not a problem. Staff can work from home because everything in the office is available to them wherever there’s an internet connection.

What happens if someone rings me at the office?

Call forwarding is the answer. With Business VoIP your office based desk phone can be diverted to your landline at home, or even your mobile. The process is quick and easy to set up, and your customers don’t even need to know that you’re not in the office!

What about my emails?

Use Outlook as your work email system and you can check them anywhere, as well as your calendar and contacts. If you don’t have a computer to hand, you can always check them on your smartphone.

How do I access my files and documents?

We try to keep as much as possible on ‘the cloud’ – this way you can access it at any computer. Use an online storage facility such as Dropbox, and your files can be accessed from any other computer. It’s worth keeping as much as possible on the cloud, for example most of our staff use Salesforce and Netsuite in their daily tasks, both of which can be accessed like any regular website.

The bottom line:

With this level of flexibility everybody wins – employers don’t lose business, staff don’t miss a day of work, and customers aren’t inconvenienced. Your VoIP line is attached to your account, not the actual phone connection like a BT landline, so you can take it anywhere. VoIP is cheaper than traditional phone systems too – try our cost calculator now to find out how much you can save.

It’s not just winter weather that VoIP is beneficial for. Whether your car has broken down, you’re on holiday or your train gets cancelled, your business can still run seamlessly.